Problem: What is $74\%$ of $800$ ?
Answer: Having $74\%$ of something means that you get $74$ out of every $100$ We can set up a proportion to find out what number is $74\%$ of $800$ $ \dfrac{{\text{percent}}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{\text{whole}}}$ Which things do we know, and what are we trying to find? We know the ${\text{percent}}$ is $74$ . Is $800$ the ${\text{part}}$ or the ${\text{whole}}$ The $800$ is the ${\text{whole}}$ . We are trying to find the ${\text{part}}$ that makes up $74\%$ of it: $ \dfrac{{74}}{100} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{800}}$ If we multiply the denominator of the fraction on the left by $8$ , it will be the same denominator of the fraction on the right. To keep things equal, let's also multiply the numerator on the left by $8$ $ \dfrac{{74} \times 8}{100 \times 8} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{800}}$ $ \dfrac{{592}}{800} = \dfrac{{\text{part}}}{{800}}$ $ {592} = {\text{part}}$ So $592$ is $74\%$ of $800$.